Santorum Opposes Military Intervention in Syria

Verona, PA - Following yesterday's action by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approving a resolution authorizing U.S. military force in Syria, former U.S. Senator, former Republican presidential candidate and Chairman of Patriot Voices Rick Santorum released the following statement regarding his opposition to military intervention in Syria:

"Nearly a year and a half ago when the atrocities in Syria first came to light, I advocated for military intervention to take out the Assad regime in Syria, a satellite state of Iran. Had President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acted then in support of pro-democracy forces when that rebellion was taking place, we could have removed Assad and helped usher in stability for that country.

"But we have a very different situation today. After nearly two years, 100,000 people killed, a rebel force comprised of al Qaeda and a Syrian regime in a much stronger position, a military strike would no longer be in our national security interest.

"President Obama put an arbitrary line in the sand when he made an ill-advised blanket statement about retaliating against the use of chemical weapons without the context of our national security interests. It is clear that President Obama himself now realizes the line he drew was reckless, because he's looking for Congress to share the burden by authorizing the use of force. If he firmly believed in his own policy, he would have already acted in Syria.

"There are no good outcomes here. An al Qaeda-run Syria is no better than an Assad-Iran-Hezbollah-run Syria. What is happening there is tragic, but it is not in the United States' best interest to intervene with a military strike. I urge my former colleagues in the House and Senate to defeat any measure calling for the use of force in Syria," Santorum concluded.

Senator Santorum has long spoken out about the threat of Syria and co-authored the Syria Accountability Act, which passed Congress and was signed into law by President Bush in 2003. The legislation included economic sanctions against Syria unless it stopped support for terrorism and ceased its development of WMDs.

Patriot Voices is also mobilizing its members to contact their senators and representatives to vote against any resolution that would authorize use of force in Syria.